


Perfectly Average

by reginaldthegreat



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Awkward Crush, Babies, Co-op, Crushes, Cute, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff, Love at First Sight, Marriage, Marriage Proposal, Old-Fashioned, One Shot, POV Third Person, Romance, Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:41:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28107978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reginaldthegreat/pseuds/reginaldthegreat
Summary: My best friend and I moved to Stardew Valley expecting a lot of things, one of which was NOT romance.
Relationships: Harvey/Female Player (Stardew Valley), Harvey/Player (Stardew Valley)
Kudos: 11





	Perfectly Average

When my best friend and I first moved into this little town, I did have some high expectations. I wished for peace, for success, for everything city-slicker protagonists in Netflix romcoms find on the side when they pursue a life in the countryside. Everything, of course, aside from the romance itself. I mean, there’s only like, a handful of people to choose from. What are the chances of finding a soulmate? 

Well, my best friend found it. She was the romcom main character we often found ourselves berating together when we were curled up in our bed after a long day of farming. She found her irresistibly sweet country boy, and she found it in Harvey.

She fell for him slowly, not noticing him at first. Alex was all muscles and ego, and it took her a while to see past his big head. 

Harvey, on the other hand, he fell for her all at once. Maru had rejected his advances long before we’d moved to Stardew Valley, and as the oldest bachelor, he assumed love was a lost cause for a man like himself. But the day my girl arrived at his hospital, sporting an impressive gash from her mining endeavors, Maru was an afterthought. 

Love is difficult and messy until you find the right person, then it’s only messy. 

She and Harvey were inseparable from that moment on. She spent every minute of her free time in his office, sometimes helping him build a model plane as she recalled the events of the day, our conversations, our farming troubles, and sometimes, much to Harvey’s chagrin, Alex’s passing comments to her when she stopped by Pierre’s to restock the seeds for the next season. 

Harvey always listened supportively, happy to be near her. Happy for any and all bits and pieces of her. Eventually, though, he struggled to stay within the unnamed bounds of the friendzone. 

“Could you give her these for me? She mentioned she loved tulips so... I m-mean... they were on sale at Pierre’s,” the man stammered, handing me a crisp banquet of yellow and violet flowers at the door of the cabin she and I shared. 

I smirked knowingly, taking the flowers and agreeing to pass them on. 

“Harvey,” I called as he turned to leave, “you should tell her. That you like her, I mean. You’re closer to her type than Alex would ever be.”

He blushed, alarmed I called him out on his badly concealed feelings. He nodded, desperate for a way out of the conversation.

“Thank you for the advice,” he said quickly, before taking brisk strides down the dirt path. 

I don’t know what happened really, one day it was flowers. The next day, it was an impromptu day skipping rocks together at the beach. The day after that, she hardly ever mentioned Alex anymore except to compare him with Harvey. 

“I never really noticed how much more mature Harvey is compared to Alex. Whenever we’re walking down the sidewalk, he always insists on walking closer to the road. Isn’t that so considerate? And I thought chivalry was dead!” she’d scoff, completely unaware that this was the 27th time she’d brought him up today.

The weeks following that one, my best friend was sick all the time! Like literally every other day, she urged that she needed to see the doctor. 

“I’m feeling a weird tickle in my throat. You think it could be a parasite?” she asked me.

“You’re an idiot,” I’d say back, but she’d already be dashing to the kitchen to make an extra coffee, just in case her gentlemanly doctor needed a caffeine boost. 

As I focused on farming, my best friend began studying for her PA license so that she could work with Harvey at his clinic. 

“I’ve always wanted to be a PA. He just gives me that extra encouragement I always needed,” she explained.

The day after she graduated, she came bounding into our room, throwing her arms around me and screaming with glee. 

“We’re getting married!” she shouted, loud enough to take my eardrums out. 

I wasn’t surprised, but I pretended to be. Harvey spent a lot of time planning for the engagement. He had a mermaid’s pendant ready for months now. 

“Should I hire an orchestra? Or buy a cage of doves to free?” he’d asked me, frantic about making sure the engagement would rock her world. 

“You’ll hate this answer but... she’d love anything you do simply because it was was from you,” I said back. 

I was clearly right, because as my girl recapped the fairytale proposal, she brushed past the rose petal trail and horse-drawn carriage to talk endlessly about him. About Harvey and his big, beautiful eyes and shy smile and the way his mustache seemed to accentuate his dimples when he took her hand in his.

They were married a few days later. The sky was bluer than ever and perfectly cloudless. Her wedding dress was red and gold and she looked like she was made of sunlight. Harvey cried. To be honest, I did too. 

So... that brings us to today. Today isn’t especially momentous, event-wise. I’m babysitting their daughter while they’re away at work. 

She has mousey brown hair like Harvey, braided in two short, thick pleats on both sides of the back of her head, and somehow, eyes just as bright as my best friend’s. 

“You really won the genetic lottery,” I told the little girl absentmindedly. 

“What does ‘genetic’ mean?” she asked. 

I patted her head, too tired to answer her millionth question of the day. She also had a passionate, boundless curiosity. Both her parents were responsible for that. 

“Your mama and daddy will answer that question for you later, okay?” 

“Okay,” she agreed. 

With that, I heard the soft chorus of laughter outside the house. My girl and her doctor were home. 

Beyond the dusty glass of these old cabin windows, they walked hand in hand, pink in their cheeks from the kind of laughter that makes you cry. 

Completely and utterly in the messiest kind of love.


End file.
